Essay writing techniques

This
pre-term course aims at preparing the new Harvey students for their future
academic writing tasks. The course focuses on the writing of short essays on
medical and scientific topics as such essays will be part of the examination
format of the Harvey Medicine Course.

It will
teach basic writing techniques covering topics such as format, style, grammar, syntax
and referencing. In addition, the course will discuss the use of reference
managers, information databases and other resources that will become an
integral part of studying. The most important aim of the course is to make the
students understand what examiners, review committees, or funding bodies want
from them. This important awareness will allow more effective preparation for a
grant application or an exam resulting in an increased chance of winning a
fellowship or contest, more efficient performance during written examinations, better
comprehension of the course material and, as a result, higher marks!

During the
course the students have the opportunity to write short essays in order to
practice the acquired writing skills and bring common problems in writing to
light.

The aim of the Chemistry course is the acquisition of the chemical structure, the properties and the transformation of the different classes of substances (inorganic and organic) in order to understand the basic chemical properties and transformation of the molecules in living organisms.

Aggregation states of the matter: definition of the solid state and description of the different types of crystalline solids. Definition of the liquid states. Vapor pressure and surface tension. Definition of gaseous state. A brief presentation of ideal gases' laws and the kinetic molecular theory of ideal gases.

Solutions: definition, different types and qualitative and quantitative characterization. Thermodynamical considerations on solubility. Colligative properties: depression of the vapor pressure of the solvent and osmotic pressure.